Naoki Higashida

Naoki Higashida (東田　直樹 Higashida Naoki, born August 12, 1992) is a Japanese poet, novelist, essayist. Higashida was diagnosed with autism at the age of 5. He was not able to make himself understood to people around him and his behavior was considered erratic.

Despite his disability, Higashida quickly took to learning Japanese characters. By attending a nearby cram school, he was able to better express himself. Soon he began writing Japanese characters with the help of adults who assisted by guiding his hand. He was able to express some of his emotions. Higashida’s mother noticed his power of expression and encouraged him to write poems and short stories. At the age of 11, and again when he was 12, Higashida won first prize in the Grimm Fairy Tales Contest, a story writing competition.

Since 2004, Higashida has published more than twenty books of fiction and non-fiction. The Reason I Jump was published as a book in 2007 featuring 58 often-asked questions about his autism and his frank, sometimes startling, answers to them. The book was a hit in Japan, but its discovery and subsequent translation by David Mitchell, who previously lived in Japan and has a Japanese wife, brought it mainstream to audiences all around the world. Mitchell’s English translation was published in 2013 and soon topped the best-seller list of Amazon’s U.S. and British sites.

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Sydney Birk

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